Vending machines have been used by large consumer product companies to dispense their goods (“primary products”) for years. Vending machines have also been used as a means to dispense premiums or promotional items in an attempt to increase sales of those primary products. These vending programs contain a promotional product that is delivered to the consumer instead of the primary product that was first intended to purchase. These vending programs require the money initially inserted by the consumer into the machine to be returned in substantially the same form and amount inserted so the consumer can complete their original intended purchase. Further, for purposes of these programs, these companies have desired to maintain their brand awareness by utilizing containers that are indistinguishable to those used to vend their primary products. This has required extensive research and testing to comply with the detailed size, weight and rigidity specifications of various manufacturers of vending machines in order to ensure that the assembled prize delivery mechanism meets the standards used by the greatest number of machines in the field as possible.
Historically, the approach to these challenges has involved a labor intensive, cumbersome process which allowed for the manual insertion of currency and the premium or promotional items into the same identical package that typically vends the primary products of these consumer products companies, with some necessary modifications to address the detailed size, weight and rigidity specifications of the various manufacturers of vending machines. For example, the process to execute a vending promotion that gives away free premium or promotional items with purchase (with the goal of increasing volume of beverage sales) would typically encompass the following:    Empty containers which would otherwise be used to vend the company's primary products would need to be sourced and delivered locally in the country in which the promotion is being done;    The desired premium or promotional products would need to be sourced and delivered, most often from a different country of manufacture where lower cost labor could be used since the intent was to give these items away free of charge;    The empty containers would be sliced open manually to allow for insertion of the desired premium or promotional products;    The desired premium or promotional products had to be inserted, most often first into a cardboard sleeve which provided for enough rigidity in the assembled container to support beverages to be stacked above the assembled container when placed in a channel in a vending machine;    The desired premium or promotional products had to be of constructed of a size and/or density, and possess the characteristics that would readily lend itself to insertion in the aforementioned sleeve;    The desired premium or promotional products had to be of such a weight that would readily lend itself to vending without substantial modifications being made to the empty containers and sleeves otherwise used to vend the company's primary products;    Currency of the local country had to be sorted in the country where the promotion was being done in the correct denomination and inserted to the empty container along with the premium or promotional product in the above referenced sleeve, in an amount which covers the cost of the primary product which the recipient originally intended to purchase in the local market;    The containers needed to be taped closed manually;    A label, most often similar in design to the company's primary product labels, would be affixed utilizing local labor in the country where the promotion was being done to the container which explained to the recipient that they had won a free premium or promotional item along with enough currency to purchase the original desired product;    The completed assembly would need to be shrink-wrapped utilizing local labor in the country where the promotion was being done to both protect the product from any beverage leakage in the vending channels and provide a level of security regarding the currency that had been inserted.The local market adaptability of these programs has otherwise been restricted as it has been difficult to change the amount or type of currency needed to purchase the primary products to that dictated by the local currency or cost of the company's primary products. For example, not all local markets of consumer product companies in the business of vending 12 oz beverages are priced the same. Further, the premium and promotional programs that are to be executed may not have the same appeal in all local markets.
The high cost of the assembled premium or promotional item has also limited the amount of free promotional or premium items that could be given away to the recipients, thereby limiting the marketing impact on sales of the company's primary products. These cost factors were driven primarily from the need to utilize local labor at third party fulfillment operations as well as the disparate freight costs associated with sourcing the empty containers, sleeves, premiums (typically from a different country of manufacture), currency, labels and shipping containers. The finished appearance of the vessel containing the premium or promotional items has also been compromised by whatever customization was necessary to meet the detailed size, weight and rigidity specifications of the various manufacturers of vending machines, which negatively impacts brand awareness and the ability of the recipient to visualize the premium or promotional item won.
What is desired is an assembly method and mechanism that can deliver promotional or premium items at a significantly reduced cost, and which allows for the flexibility to adapt to the needs of the local market currencies and trends. This mechanism must allow for the insertion of local currency of the desired denomination and amounts necessary to allow the recipient to purchase the primary product originally desired. Further, the mechanism should be constructed of a transparent substrate that allows for the premium or promotional item to be displayed in a professional manner in substantially an identical replica of the container otherwise used by the consumer product companies for vending their primary products, yet complies with the various size, weight and rigidity specifications of the various manufacturers of vending machines.